0186 | Amsterdam – Ian McEwan
Context: A reclining chair, a lamp and a cushion on a cloudy Saturday morning. REVIEW I’ve read a couple of other McEwan’s which always captivated me until about halfway through….
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0185 | Thank You, Jeeves – P.G.Wodehouse
Context: On the bookshelf along with this were several other first edition Wodehouse hardbacks, some with very good dustjackets from the 1930s. Lovely. REVIEW I couldn’t help thinking of Huxley’s…
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0172 | The New York Trilogy – Paul Auster
Context: We spilled pesto on the bed just as I was finishing this off after dinner – mad rushing of covers to the bathroom but all is fine now. REVIEW…
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0170 | Erewhon – Samuel Butler
Context: While listening to this in the Wycliffe kitchens, I was informed that, due to Health & Safety regulations, I was no longer allowed to listen to audio books while…
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0168 | The Bishops’ Progress – Mary Taylor Huber
REVIEW This one might be hard to get hold of and I’m not entirely sure that if you have to work hard to get it, it’s going to be all…
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0164 | Survey Research Methods – Floyd Fowler
REVIEW There’s now a fourth edition of this. I read the second edition, published just after Gutenberg got his printing press together, so these comments have to be considered in…
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0158 | The House of the Spirits – Isabel Allende
Context: Read this while visiting our friends who live next to this old rail bridge on the Tyne river, Northumberland. REVIEW If you like One Hundred Years of Solitude, you’re…
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0156 | Possessing the Secret of Joy – Alice Walker
Context: Daffodils abound in the spring sunlight while I read this mostly on walks to and from work. REVIEW The wife read this before me. That doesn’t often happen and…
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0154 | The Long Goodbye – Raymond Chandler
Context: more audio while working in the kitchens at Horsleys Green. REVIEW Immediately after finishing the Big Sleep, I went straight on to listen to this. I was disappointed in…
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0147 | The Sea – John Banville
Context: My dad gave me this for Christmas so it was appropriate I finish it off at his place where, over the road, they’ve laid out the foundations of the…
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0145 | Dreams from My Father – Barack Obama
Context: Read this when we moved into a lovely house in Piddington. REVIEW My aunt-in-law packaged this one up for me for Christmas thinking I’d like to read it. She…
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0142 | Don’t Sleep, There are Snakes – Daniel Everett
Context: Given to me by my mum for Christmas, the same lady who, about 35 years ago, made me a Winnie the Pooh I’ve recently been reunited with after giving…
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0126 | The Unbearable Lightness of Being – Milan Kundera
Context: Finished this as we prepared to do some car-boot sales to get rid of stuff prior to moving to PNG. REVIEW My second Kundera novel after The Book of…
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0118 | Northern Lights – Philip Pullman
Context: Finished this off on my in-laws’ decking in the garden. REVIEW For a long time I’ve been wanting to get my hands on the first book in His Dark…
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0111 | Hawksmoor – Peter Ackroyd
Context: Finished off in the garden of my mum’s house in Portugal. REVIEW I’d read a bit of Ackroyd’s non-fiction as well before this and know that while he can…
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0107 | Vile Bodies – Evelyn Waugh
Context: Read this on and off on the bench in my in-laws’ garden. REVIEW What a strange book this was. It was nothing like I expected at all and, despite…
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0097 | White Teeth – Zadie Smith
Context: Me and Mrs Arkiyomi read this together a chapter at a time while we toured Europe inlcuding tea on this Aegean ferry. REVIEW My first Zadie Smith and it…
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0091 | Dracula – Bram Stoker
Context: Started this in the Romanian town of Sighisoara (in background), birthplace of Vlad Tepes who some claim to be the model Stoker used for the character of Count Dracula….